Source: CCTV.com

02-26-2009 08:13

A team of 80 Chinese lawyers have pledged to continue their efforts to bring two looted bronze sculptures back home. Their bid in a Parisian court to stop the two being auctioned at Christie's was quashed. Christie's announced on its official website Tuesday that the two bronze heads of a rabbit and a rat are expected to sell for 8-million and 10-million euros respectively.

Insiders pointed out that Christie's announcement has some connection with the fact that the French court refused to halt the sale of the two fountainheads in light of the approaching auction time of the Chinese relics.

A team of 80 Chinese lawyers have pledged to continue their efforts to bring two looted bronze sculptures back home. 
A team of 80 Chinese lawyers have pledged to continue their efforts 
to bring two looted bronze sculptures back home. 

The Christie's House in France will auction the two bronze sculptures in Paris at seven PM Wednesday, local time.

Early in July last year Christie's Auction House in France announced it would hold an auction of the collections of late French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge in February 2009. Among the items to go under the hammer are two fountainheads looted from the imperial summer resort of Yuanmingyuan, or the old Summer Palace, in west Beijing, China. The imperial garden has been in ruins since it was pillaged by Anglo-French allied forces during the Second Opium War in 1860. The former imperial garden had a spectacular fountain featuring bronze sculptures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. All were lost during the plunder.

The former imperial garden had a spectacular fountain featuring bronze sculptures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.
The former imperial garden had a spectacular fountain featuring 
bronze sculptures of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Five of the 12 Yuanmingyuan statue heads have been retrieved at a high price. The state-owned China Poly Group purchased the heads of the ox, monkey and tiger sculptures at auctions for over four million US dollars in 2000. Macao businessman Stanley Ho bought the boar head in 2003 and the horse head in 2007 at a cost of nearly 10 million US dollars. Ho donated the treasures to the Chinese government. The rabbit and rat heads are the only two pieces known to now exist outside China. The whereabouts of the remaining five animals is unknown.

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Editor:Zhao Yanchen